Zoë Kravitz tonight made her debut appearance as host of SNL, speaking in her opening monologue about her new Warner Bros. film, The Batman.
“In the movie, I play Catwoman — sorry, the Catwoman,” Kravitz joked. “To prepare for the role, I watched the movie musical Cats every day for a year, which is actually the same way I heard Joaquin Phoenix prepared to play the Joker.”
More From Zoë Kravitz Hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’
“Somebody out here talking about cats?” asked Kate McKinnon, approaching the stage in a leather dominatrix suit with pointy cat ears.
“Hi, I was just doing my monologue. You’re also Catwoman?” asked Kravitz.
“Yes, I’m Catwoman from the ’90s, the one with the whip. You know, like cats have,” deadpanned McKinnon. “Zoë, you’re part of a proud lineage of Catwomen, each with their own origin story. Do you want to know mine?”
“Yeah, what’s yours?” asked the host.
“OK, I fell out of a window onto a pile of cats. They licked me back to life, and now I dress like Sandy from a porno version of Grease,” explained McKinnon. “It’s still called Grease.”
“Cool. Well, thank you. It’s great to have some fellow Catwoman support,” said Kravitz, attempting to transition back into her monologue.
“Hold on, we have to fire up the Cat Signal,” exclaimed McKinnon.
“Cat signal?” asked Kravitz.
“Yeah, for every time you need a Catwoman,” explained McKinnon. “Behold!”
We then cut to a shot of a Cat Signal shining in the sky, casting light onto 30 Rock.
“Oh, I love that!” said Kravitz. “It’s a noble cat ready to pounce off a ledge.”
“Or it’s doing its business in the litter box,” offered McKinnon.
Subsequently, another Catwoman played by Ego Nwodim appeared. She’d seen the Cat Signal and imagined someone must be in danger.
“You’re Catwoman, too!” observed Kravitz.
“Indubitably,” affirmed Nwodim. “I was the first Black Catwoman. Meow!“
“Right, yes,” said Kravitz. “Eartha Kitt from the 1960s TV version.”
“Yeah, people called it campy,” said Nwodim, “but it turned out it was just super gay.”
After humoring McKinnon and Nwodim for a moment, Kravitz tried once again to get back to her monologue. But just as she was about to have the Cat Signal shut off, an old woman pushing a grocery cart with a white cat inside appeared.
“Another Catwoman?” asked Kravitz.
“Yeah, yeah. More of a cat lady, I guess,” said the character played by Aidy Bryant. “This is my husband — sorry, cat — and we’re here to meet [musical guest] Rosalía. Do you take us to her, or how does that work?”
“I don’t think I can do that right now,” said Kravitz. “I have to host the show.”
“Oh, yeah. Sure. I get it,” said Bryant. “You know, I’ve hosted the show dozens of times — in my mind, where it’s called Saturday Night Cat.”
“Not Caturday Night Live?” asked Kravitz, to which Bryant replied, “Dang it.”
“OK, wow. I was really not expecting to meet so many catpeople,” said Kravitz. “Not that I don’t love it, but maybe that’s enough.”
“Even if the next one is Doja Cat?” asked Nwodim.
“Oh my God, is she here?” Kravitz asked. Then, Katt Williams (Chris Redd) appeared in the audience.
“Oh, come on. You’re not even a woman,” said an exasperated Kravitz.
“I am a lover of women. Meow,” said Redd. “And if I wanted to meet Rosalía…”
The sketch ends with all the cat (or Katt) people jumping up in a glorious freeze frame, and Kravitz exclaiming, “We have a great show.”
Check out her opening monologue above.